Wiki Patterns
grow your wiki
EditOverOrganizer
What is it?
An OverOrganizer constantly adjusts the structure of a wiki, often moving pages, changing page names, and removing links where s/he thinks they don't belong. The problem with this is it leaves others confused and deters them from participating since they can't find content they've added and may think it's been deleted. This causes them to lose a sense of ownership over their contributions.
How do I notice it?
If the site seems to be constantly changing and there isn't consensus from the community. If you're a wiki champion and people are coming to you confused or frustrated that they can't find their previous work, you might have an OverOrganizer who's being a little too "helpful."
How do I fix it?
An OverOrganizer isn't too hard to find. Look in the page histories to see if someone is editing very often and making significant structural and organizational changes. Discuss with the person how to use the comment or discussion section of a page to propose major changes before actually making them. Also, encourage the person to practice WikiGnome behaviors by sticking to smaller changes that improve content without significantly moving or changing it.
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Related Patterns
- Do it all - these two patterns are related in that a Do-it-all tends to do everything, to the exclusion of others, while an OverOrganizer tends to move others' contributions around, creating confusion on the wiki.
- WikiGnome - a WikGnome tends to small fixes and improvements, but avoids making any big structural changes that would confuse others.
Further Reading
Adoption Patterns
Adoption Anti-Patterns
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My question in reading this that relates to how better to do it. The key to any wiki is the ability to find what you are looking for. Organizing the wiki by pages, spaces, etc in a logical structure helps users browse through and find content. Without that structure, we are left with a very unorganized mess that relies solely on search to find things which sometimes isn't the way you need to find things.
In my experience with organizing music, image and normal files - searching and tagging are the best methods of finding content but sometimes structure is also required and augments searching and tagging.
Regardless, I see structure as being a little important so I'm wondering if there is a way to get structure and organization while avoiding the problems you detailed?
Thanks.
Josh,
Great point! I'm working on a pattern called PageMaintainer which I hope will address this. Feel free to add to it - I think you've got very good insights on this!
Stewart
Thanks for the suggestions, Josh and Stewart. I'm interested in structured authoring and wikis (and so is Stewart) and this pattern and the PageMaintainer pattern are right along those thought lines.
I've had a great discussion on my blog with Don Day, chair of the DITA OASIS technical communityabout how valuable organization can be, so I went ahead and filled in the PageMaintainer pattern page and I'd love to get edits and hear more comments on the balancing act between consensus and organization. As a technical writer and information architect these topics are in the forefront of our work lives.